Chinese appetite: Guizhou Cuisines

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‍Guizhou is located in the southwest of China, sharing similar weather conditions with Sichuan Province: constantly rainy. Thus, people in these places share similar eating habits such as spicy food. We introduce two dishes and one sauce to you today, all signature food from Guizhou Province.

Fish in Sour Soup

To make this soup at home, the ingredients needed are five tomatoes, rice, ginger, garlic, green onions, shallots, parsley, lemon and fish.

Fish and Sour Soup. /VCG Photo

Step One: Make the sour sauce with tomato. Wash and cut them into small pieces. Put them in a sealed water-and-oil-free container. Add salt, sugar, and alcohol, and ferment for seven days.

The ratio of the ingredients is seven cherry-tomatoes, to three grams of salt, a teaspoon of sugar, 50 ml of wine, and two kg of fish.

Step Two: Ferment the water that you used to clean the rice for three days. Note that it should be the cleanest, namely the last water you used to clean the raw rice. The fermented water is the "sour soup" ingredient for this dish.

Step Three: Cut the onions and gingers into pieces, the fish as well. Fry the fish a bit with all the chopped ingredients, then add the home-made sour sauce and soup. It depends on how salty it already is to see if more salt is needed. Simmer till the fish is edible.

Tofu and Noodles

It is as simple as it looks: tofu, noodles, and sauce. And yet, it remains one of the most typical and popular breakfast options of the local people. You may find it easily in small shops on the street than fancy restaurants, but as long as there are people in Guizhou enjoy it, this simple dish may never have to worry about losing customers.

The Tofu and Noodles of Guizhou. /VCG Photo

A man at a charity Tofu and Noodle Restaurant serving breakfast for a senior in Guizhou. /VCG Photo

Guizhou Chili

Creating your own Guizhou Chili Sauce is easy.

Ingredients: fresh chili, ginger, garlic, raw peppers. Chop them into small dices, then add white wine, sugar, and salt, and marinate all of them in a jar. The marinated sauce can be found in many Guizhou dishes. Locals like to think that it has more layers of flavor compared to dry chili.

Factory produced chili sauce in Guizhou. /VCG Photo

Guizhou people prefer using ripe chili from August and September. Anyone who has chopped an onion knows how it can make you cry, let alone cutting chili. Local people used to take the chili outdoor where the air is better and use knives with really long handles.

In recent years, Guizhou Province started to manufacture this sauce to promote the local economy, for they know that their chili is popular nationwide. People suffer less from home-making the sauce, but they lose the most authentic flavor of the sauce also.